Just got back from attending a “Messiah” sing-in at the Alpine Tabernacle in American Fork. Very enjoyable! A few thoughts: --I absolutely love “Messiah,” from the soloists’ ad-libbed operatic trills to every last ridiculously Baroque 32nd note. --There was one significant deviation from the original score: we sang the famous “Hallelujah Chorus” very last. While I am often a stickler for historical accuracy, this seemed fine, even appropriate, to me. --My singing ability, never terribly impressive at the best of times, has painfully atrophied of late. I often found myself wandering through the score like a traveller in a trackless desert: sometimes purposeful, sometimes aimless, but almost always hopelessly lost. --I am glad my brother Ross Larsen (whose voice and sight-reading abilities are much, much better than mine) was able to join me. I am even gladder that he and his wonderful family have moved to Utah so we can see them more often. --I wonder what Handel, a German who came to Britain with its new Hanoverian king (George I) and ended up staging the first performance of “Messiah,” in Dublin, Ireland (with an orchestra disparaged by some as a “club of fiddlers)” would think of the fact that his music would be played and enjoyed some 273 years later in a 100-year-old building half a world away in American Fork, Utah. --I am fortunate to live in a community so able and willing to make and enjoy beautiful music together. --While the headlines are often filled with danger, anxiety, violence, anger, and hatred, there remains much that is good and beautiful in the world. --A religious observation to follow. If this isnt your thing, no need to read further. While much of “Messiah’s” longevity can be attributed to Handel’s musical genius, I think part of it must be attributed to the music’s message: The “wonderful counselor” who was “despised and rejected” by men, suffered by taking upon Himself a world’s worth of pain and died so He (and we) could live again. “With his stripes we are healed.” “Hallelujah” and “Amen!”
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 06:31:38 +0000
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